Single Comment

First thanks for all the comments.

To clarify some more stuff since it comes up in the comments but seems like has already been answered.

Dragons can jump.  They cannot be blocked.  If they could not jump, then they would be limited too much.  Dragons can actually do a lot of stuff.  They can protect the center of the back row, plus the sides.  They can protect the pawns on the sides (Protecting the Flanks).  They can also protect a little bit in the center.  Combine them with the Elpehants and you can basically protect all of the pawns.

The Javelins or as some people like to say Bishops can cross the river.  There is no restriction mentioned.  Why I do not call them bishops is because of three reasons.  First there are no bishops in China, in the old days of Western chess, during the medievil period bishops only moved two spots diagonally and were basically the same as the elephants in Chinese Chess.  And two because in this version of chess, the pieces can only go to half of the board, and can actually protect one another.

The horse can actually escape from the Javelins since it can go to all of the spots on the board.  The horse really has no exact need to read the back rows.

As for the piece values.  I am not too concerned about what the new worths are.  Having played the regular game a lot (Regular Chinese Chess) I have seen a lot of victories in which a player has won with very little and the other player has taken a lot of pieces.  A lot has to do with position and timing.  Who cares if you lose a lot of pieces but win the game anyways.  It is still a win.

As for the computer, I am not a programmer and would never be able to program something to figure it out.  There are lots of different openings.  Besides in the Eastern tradition of thought, gaming playing is part of daily life and it does not matter who wins or loses, the point of playing a game is to exercise your mind and to try different things.  Sure there could be someone who always wins or wins most of the time, but never really learns something, while someone else tries new opening moves and different stratiges and actually learns something.

As for the rook being able to get in the back row.  Well that makes defending the back row now something to consider.  I have yet really come across an actual human game in which someone was able to get in the back row and actually do something with it.  Generally by the time a person was able to do this, the game was more or less over.  I would have to play it more and see if it comes up or not.  If it does there would be simple solutions to fix it.